Mocha Dad’s Fatherhood Roundtable Discussion Session IV

One of my fellow bloggers who I greatly love, is another father Fred out of Houston named Mocha Dad.  This month he has asked me along with six other great fathers to be interviewed regarding great topics in a roundtable discussion on his website.  Below is the FOURTH of four interview sessions.   If you missed the first, click here, the second, click here or the third, click here. However, after reading my responses I would prefer you go to his site (see link below) and read the other six panelist and comment or discuss on his blog.  Thanks – Fred

Mocha Dad: How do you handle household chores in your home? What is the division of labor?

Fred: Unless you have four legs, you must do chores in order to live in our house. It is all part of being a growing functional family. The chores increase with age and are addressed as primary and secondary functions:

• Karen: Primary – Shopper, all things school related, homework helper, decorator of all things outside, keeper of the dog, master family schedule keeper. Secondary – Fred’s backup, vacuuming, a rare occasional shower cleaner.
• Fred: Primary – Bread winner, bill payer, and budget producer, family laundry washer & folder, in charge of washing dishes and placing in the dish washer, all things electronic & computer related. Secondary – Karen’s backup, hard homework and major kid’s projects.
• Caitlyn: Primary – Reading and attending school, keeping room clean, dish washer emptier, must put away all her folded clothes, collecting dirty clothes, vacuuming. Secondary – Feeding the dog, cooking one night a week.
• Zachary: Primary – Reading and attending school, keeping room clean, table setter, mopper of kitchen and tiled floors. Secondary – All things electronic & computer related.

Mocha Dad: What do you teach your children about money?

Fred: Money is to be earned by trading time for money. To become wealthy you must learn to residual or duplicate your time to increase your money. You must save 10% and give away 10% and learn to live on 80% until you become rich then those first two numbers must go up.

Mocha Dad: What type spiritual or religious teachings do you share with your children?

Fred: Basic Christianity. When they get a little older, we will impart into them “Red Letter Christianity.” The reality is that God is real in our lives and we cannot separate it out in everything we do. Thus their Christianity is inevitable by modeled association.

Mocha Dad: What advice would you give to new fathers?

Fred: Now is the time to be the very best person you can be. As a dad, your influence on your kids will be far greater than your wife’s. Your child’s success, promiscuity, drug problem, integrity, and grades will be in direct proportion to your active involvement in their lives. The next 25 years will go by faster than any other year of your life—take some time and be present in your kids’ lives. Hug, be real, and say I love you—all the time!

Mocha Dad: Please share a humorous fatherhood experience.

Fred: Before I took daily ADD medicine, I had sleep apnea and would fall asleep reading to my kids. One day my kids were playing house where the parents were the kids and the kids were the adults. My son goes, “Ok, I’ll be the dad, he grabbed a book and proceeded to pretend to fall asleep on the couch and snore loudly. We all busted out laughing! Remember more is caught than taught. Now go have some fun with those kiddos!

This concludes the round table interview.  Again to read the other fathers and the MAJOR discussion that went on about these topic, please click the link atop for Mocha Dad’s blog.  Special thanks to Fred (aka Mocha Dad) for selecting me to participate in this discussion!

Now it’s your turn. How do you teach your kids about money or religion? How do chores work in your house? What’s the funnest dad moment you’ve had?

Fred Campos is father to three and primary custodian to his daughter Caitlyn from a previous relationship. Like this post? Make sure you subscribe to his blog, book him to teach or speak. Image courtesy of franky242 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net